Cursed Apology
by FiesiMcFies
Summary: Set between FT chapter 437 and 438. Lucy's glad to be back home, but there's something troubling her mind ... Will she get the apology she deserves for what happened one year ago?


**Cursed Apology**

 _Author's note: Story takes place between chapter 437 and 438, so don't read if you haven't read it yet!_

 _After reading the recent manga chapters I felt like writing an apology Lucy deserved for being left behind. It turned out less fluffy as I planned it to be, but there's still NaLu in it, though more in a friendship-like way._

"Morning, Lucy", Erza greeted her when the blonde stellar mage sat down next to her friend, yawning. Although the sun was just rising, some of the guild members were already quiet busy building up the first walls. At the moment the guild wasn't more than a few supports connected by a handful of planks, surrounding tables, chairs and benches. Despite the fact that the building was far from being as gorgeous as it once had been, it already felt like Fairy Tail again.

Erza was peacefully eating her strawberry cake, Elfman was shouting something about being a man while slamming nails down into wood with his bare fists, and Warren was explaining his newest invention to an already drunk Cana.

"Lucy, could you do me a small favor?", Mirajane suddenly asked. Lucy looked up to see the white-haired takeover mage standing infront of her, smiling sweetly. How could Lucy refuse helping the barmaid? Though she had to admit she felt still tired. She'd slept over at Levy's last night, and the girls had talked for hours. To Lucy's disappointment the blue-haired girl wasn't really talkative concerning a certain topic – namely Gajeel – but Lucy's love senses were tickling. She'd read enough romance novels to know something was going on between the script mage and the iron dragon slayer.

"Of course, how can I help you?", Lucy now asked. She prayed this favor wouldn't include her having to wear embarrassing clothes.

"Natsu and Happy forgot something very important here, can you give it to them?"

"Sure", Lucy slowly answered. She couldn't help but still feel disappointed and sad when thinking about her teammates leaving her behind one year ago. It would take her some more time to get over it, she assumed. "Where are they?"

"They went on a mission, but they can't be far." Mira handed her a small, blue bag.

"A mission?" Lucy started to feel left out again. "We don't even have a request board yet."

"It's more training than mission", Erza corrected. She gave Mira a meaningful look before returning to her cake.

"Just look after them at the nearest park", Mira suggested and innocently smiled at Lucy, ignoring the blonde mage's quizzical look. Lucy knew better than trying to escape Mira's schemings, so she took the bag and left the guild's ground.

It was Happy's voice that drew her attention.

"Pathetic! You can do better!", she heard him scream. Lucy didn't think Natsu needed any more training after seeing what he did to Ikusatsunagi. Curiously she hid herself behind a tree and watched the blue cat vigorously shout: "Try again!"

"Aye!" To Lucy's surprise, the salmon-haired dragon slayer bowed down the the ground, his forehead touching the grass underneath him. There was a rather pleading look in his eyes and he seemed to have troubles forming words. "I … want to apologize", he started, than made a desperate sigh as he sat up and scratched his head. "If I'd known the guild disband, I would've never left ..."

"But you did!", Happy screeched, his voice unusually high. Lucy furrowed her brows and kept on staring at the scene, unseen by her teammates. Why on Earthland would Happy make Natsu apologize? At least those two traveled together during the past year.

The blue cat continued scolding in a weird, high-pitched voice: "I will never forgive you! I will hate you forever, and the adorable, awesome Happy will never get any fish from me until you learn to apologize properly!"

"But Lucy ...", Natsu started to object. The stellar mage in her hideout clapped her hands over her mouth when she realized what her teammates were doing. Natsu was practicing to apologize! The last bits of anger inside her vanished in an instant, and she wasn't even mad at Happy's poor acting. Holding back a giggle that was forming in her throat, she carefully backed away, returning to her apartment. She didn't want to ruin the surprise of what the fire dragon slayer would finally say in his defense. Although she knew that whatever it was, she would forgive him anyway.

When she stepped out of her bathroom after having enjoyed a refreshing shower a few hours later she wasn't too surprised to find Natsu sitting in her living room, greeting her with a wide grin. She remembered the last time he'd crushed into her apartment and didn't bother using the famous Lucy Kick on him. Instead she tightened her grip at the towel that was wrapped around her body and hurried over to her bedroom where she quickly jumped into a set of clothes to spare them another embarrassing moment.

Natsu was still sitting in an armchair when she returned to the living room. He wore an unusually thoughtful expression and avoided meeting her eyes. Before she had the chance to shout at him for always breaking into her house he murmured: "I need to tell you something."

Since she knew what he was going to say, she gave him an encouraging smile, curious where the apology training had gotten him.

"Sure, what is it?" She tried to sound as clueless as possible.

"I … want you to know-" She was glad she already knew what this was all about because otherwise she would have definitely gotten it wrong. Clearing his throat he continued: "I never meant to … geez!" He slammed down his flat hand, leaving a smoking mark of his palm at the tabletop infront of him.

""Natsu!", she screamed, looking horrified at her ruined table. "Stop destroying my furniture, I've just bought it!"

"Sorry", he sighed, still avoiding her gaze. Lucy was aware of the fact that he had difficulties talking about unpleasant subjects which was why she forced herself to calm down and gave him a new chance to verbalize his apology. But really, it shouldn't be so hard for him after practicing it half of the day, should it?

In that moment a blue cat came flying through the window Natsu must had let open after breaking in. "You're ruining it!", Happy yelled and landed on the fire dragon slayer's head, a scary look in his round eyes. "If you continue like this, I'll never get any more fish from Lucy."

"It's harder than I thought", Natsu defended himself, pouting. He flinched when his blue-furred friend suddenly pulled at his hair. "Ow! Watcha doin', Happy?"

"Helping", the exceed meowed. Lucy who had watched them curiously until now gasped in shock when she saw Happy taking a small doll out of his green bag.

"Put that thing away", the blonde mage screamed but Happy only chuckled and moved Mr Cursey around, forcing Natsu to bow down infront of Lucy.

"Natsu wants to apologize for only leaving a will for you back when we'd left Magnolia."

"A note", Lucy hissed. "Stupid cat. Stop playing around with that doll."

"Not fair", Natsu protested through gritted teeth while he tried to straighten his spine. "I can do it by myself."

"Don't worry, I got this", Happy chirped. He forced Natsu to grab Lucy by her shoulders, shaking her lightly. "Listen, Lucy, I'm talking for Natsu now because he is horribly bad at apologizing", the cat moved on and then changed his voice, though he didn't exactly sound like the dragon slayer. "I am deeply sorry for not taking you with us, but your constant nakedness would've distracted me too much. But now that I'm done with all that training, you can strip as often as -"

"Happy!", Natsu and Lucy shouted in unison, and the pink haired boy continued: "Don't listen to him, Lucy. I don't mind you being naked or anything, the reason I left is because I needed some time to think about the things that happened with the Tartarus guild. I wanted to become stronger in order to protect my friends, but if I'd known the guild would disband, I wouldn't have gone without you, I swear."

"I know you wouldn't", she answered softly. Seeing the honesty in his eyes made her throat go dry. How could she possibly be mad at him any longer? All she wanted to do now were the things she needed to do one year ago – talking to her best friend about their losses, their fights, their pain. But of course their was still someone around who was an expert at ruining moods.

"Now that it's all said and done, give her a warm hug to settle it", Happy said and pulled at the voodoo doll in his paws, making Natsu stumble forward to hug Lucy clumsily.

"You're suffocating me", the stellar mage squealed, gasping for air. She flapped her arms, trying to free herself from the strangling embrace. The way Natsu was forced to clutch her didn't deserve the term hug.

"You know I can't control it", he said apologetically, suddenly softening his grip around her shoulders, turning the awkward thing into a real embrace. "Are you still angry at me?"

"Of course I'm not." She slightly shook her head, enjoying the warmth of his body she could feel through his closes. "But if you ever try to sneak away again, I'll send half of the celestial spirits after you to hunt you down. Virgo loves punishment, and I'll make sure Gemini knows how to change into Ichiya -"

"I won't leave you again", he interrupted her before she could come up with more evil plans, his hot breath tickling against the skin of her neck. Despite his body heat she had to shiver unintentionally when he continued in a low voice: "It's always much more fun when we're together. That's whats you once said, remember? And it's true, last year was really boring without you, and -"

"He liiiiiiikes you." Lucy jumped back the same moment Natsu drew his arms back when Happy flew around their heads. Instead of Mr Cursey he held the blue bag in his paws which Mira had given Lucy hours ago. The stellar mage had totally forgotten about that bag. Now she wondered how long Natsu had embraced her without actually being forced to do it. A playful smile was spreading across his face, giving no hints about what he was thinking.

"What's this?", the dragon slayer asked his winged partner who peeked into the bag before replying: "It's fish!", Happy cheered. "Does it mean Lucy accepted your apology?"

"Didn't you forget that bag at the guild?", Lucy asked in confusion. When both Happy and Natsu simultaneously shook their heads, she sighed. That Mira!

"We're going to help the others at the guild. You coming, too?", Natsu wanted to know while the blue cat nibbled at the fish.

"Sure", the blonde mage nodded and returned her best friend's smile. She now felt much better.

 _Now that Lucy got her apology, I'll start a bigger FT fanfic project. Ofc it'll include NaLu and hints of other FT ships, but definitely not Mr Cursey! I don't know why this stupid doll always appears, but I couldn't handle all the sadness in this story, so I deleted half of it and handed Happy said voodoo doll. Hope you enjoyed it :)_


End file.
